ATLANTA — Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson plans to have shoulder surgery and will miss the remainder of the NBA’s 2024-25 season, a major blow to the struggling team’s effort to remain in the playoff hunt in the Eastern Conference.
The Hawks announced Wednesday that Johnson has a torn labrum in his left shoulder and will have surgery next week. The Hawks said the procedure will be performed by Dr. Kyle Hammond at the Emory Sports Medicine Complex in Atlanta.
ESPN.com first reported the season-ending surgery.
Johnson hurt his left shoulder in a 122-119 home loss to the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 23, when he immediately left the court and was escorted to the locker room. Johnson missed six games with right shoulder inflammation before suffering the left shoulder injury.
Johnson, who is expected to be ready for the 2025-26 season, has missed three consecutive games, including Tuesday night’s 100-96 loss to the Houston Rockets that extended Atlanta’s losing streak to six games, its longest of the season. The Hawks (22-25) are ninth in the East as they prepare to visit the conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers (38-9) on Thursday.
A first-round draft pick by Atlanta in 2021, Johnson has career-best averages of 18.9 points, 10 rebounds and five assists per game in his fourth season, when he has served as the team’s top scoring complement to star point guard Trae Young.
The loss of Johnson places more pressure on rookie forward Zaccharie Risacher, the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s NBA draft, to play a bigger role. Risacher is seventh on the team with his average of 10.5 points per game.
Risacher has been selected to play in the Rising Stars event in San Francisco on Feb. 14 as part of the three-day NBA All-Star lineup of activities.